WHY PLAGIARISM MATTERS. “To the extent that [former Harvard president] Claudine Gay’s behavior is common, it points to a widespread culture of corruption, favoritism, and elitism in academia… What does it say to our students when we punish them for something that’s dismissed as ‘no big deal’ when one of us is caught? It says: If you’re an elite, one of the Chosen, then you can get away with what ordinary folks are destroyed for. Rules are only for common folks, not the elite.” A startling amount of what we hear from every institution these days seems intended only to get this message across to the plebs.